By Michael Ruck and Aurelija Grubytė
HM Treasury and the FCA have completed their joint review of the criminal market abuse regime, and published a joint statement on 24 March 2023. Their observations are relevant to both the criminal and civil market abuse regimes in the UK. Most notably:
Read MoreThe FCA, PRA and UK Government are looking for feedback by 1 June 2023 to guide potential changes to the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), the UK’s regime designed to improve individual accountability and conduct standards of (mostly) senior personnel in financial services firms. To this end, the FCA and PRA jointly published a discussion paper on 30 March and HM Treasury published a call for evidence.
Read MoreBy Chloe Duan and Grace Ye
On 24 March 2023, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) released the draft amended Regulatory Measures for Futures Companies (Amended Regulatory Measures) for consultation, aiming to, amongst others, expand the scope of business activities that future companies are allowed to conduct directly.
Read MoreBy Zainab Kuku
The FCA did not hold back in its most recent comments to ESG benchmark administrators, in an indication of its increasingly adversarial approach to ‘greenwashing’. It described the quality of disclosures of ESG factors considered in benchmark methodologies as ‘poor’, and aimed clear warning shots at administrators who fail to comply with the FCA’s feedback.
Read MoreNon-transparent exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are struggling to fit in digital advertisements the specific risk legend set forth in their exemptive orders (Exemptive Order Risk Legends) may be in luck. On 29 March 2023, the staff (Staff) of the Division of Investment Management of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a statement (Statement) requesting that non-transparent ETFs use in such ads either (i) the text and formatting of their Exemptive Order Risk Legends; or (ii) the following text and formatting (with bold as shown and without bullets) (the Staff Risk Legend):
Read MoreBy Eden L. Rohrer and Jessica D. Cohn
On 29 March 2023, the federal exemption from securities broker registration for qualifying mergers and acquisitions brokers (M&A brokers) became effective. That exemption was signed into law on 29 December 2022 as a policy rider to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (H.R. 2617) (the M&A Brokers Exemption) and was described in our previous blog post and client alert.
The M&A Brokers Exemption can now be found in subsection (13) “Registration Exemption for Merger and Acquisition Brokers” of Section 15(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Read MoreBy Matthew Watts and Rebecca Mangos
As the end of the 2023 financial year fast approaches, responsible entities and CCIV corporate directors should be reminded of their obligation to notify members by 30 June 2023 of their rights to elect and request to receive certain documents in physical or electronic form.
Read MoreBy Chloe Duan and Grace Ye
In 2016, the China Securities Regulatory Commission launched the wholly foreign-owned enterprise private fund manager (WFOE PFM) program to encourage foreign fund managers to make investments in China with money raised in China. With the launching of the first Qualified Domestic Limited Partner (QDLP) fund managed by a WFOE PFM in March 2023, foreign fund managers now have the choice to decide where to invest globally with the funds raised in China.
Read MoreBy Chloe Duan and Grace Ye
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) released a series of rules on reform of the regulatory regime for initial public offering (IPO) on Chinese stock exchanges (Reform). The Reform essentially expands the registration-based IPO regime (Registration Regime) to the main boards at the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Read MoreOn 15 March 2023, amendments to the EU Regulation on the European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) were published in the Official Journal of the European Union. They will apply from 10 January 2024.
Read MoreCopyright © 2023, K&L Gates LLP. All Rights Reserved.